Curious. That was the only word that floated around Hado's brain as she attempted to figure out what all was going on. Curious.

Lunch period, the main cafeteria. Like usual the girl sat with the rest of her friends at the same table they always sat, in the same corner they always populated, in the same seating arrangement they've always sat in for almost three years running. Though unlike all the other times of sitting at the same table in the same corner in the same arrangement, today was different as Hado was no longer going through the same routine of constantly blabbering away about the most exciting topic that was on her mind. No, instead her behavior was much more different, consisting of what exactly?

Absolutely, nothing.

Indeed, somehow the same girl who was known to be so bright and bubbly and all around joyous with her mood was not that same girl today as she instead propped her right hand on the table and leaned her head against the palm, her eyebrows furrowed to create a half-focused half-wondering expression of her face. Her gaze was stuck on the other side of the cafeteria as she watched Midoriya spend his lunch period with his group of friends like he always did, and normally this would be no cause for anybody to keep their eyes on him. But for Hado, she had a cause, that cause being the strange sequence of events that was the bizarre dream she had last night. The same dream that's been stuck in her head all day today with seemingly no way to get it out anytime soon.

What did it mean exactly, as she watched the boy's smile grow and brighten while he laughed at something that was said by Todoroki. What did it mean? What was the point of the dream that just so happened to occur the night of the same day that Haya suggested she clarify the grounds between them? The emotions that emanated from the dream were so odd and random, yet it felt as if they all had a clear message to her. But what exactly? What was the message that was being conveyed to the third year that she had so much trouble seeing? If it was a clear message for her to read as it is, why can't she see it?

"Yo dude, watch." A second year male said to his friend, the two walking side by side and towards the direction of Hado's table. With his right forearm the first of the second years held it parallel to the floor as a white glow enveloped the entire outside of his forearm all the way up to his pinky. "I've been working on something with my Quirk recently and I finally managed to get it right, check it out! I got it to shift into a solid light material, and now it's like a sword!"

"Whoa! Holy shit man!" His friend said excitedly. "So can it like cut through stuff?"

"Hell yeah it can! Right now it takes some time since I'm still working on getting it right so, it's kinda hard to swipe and just straight cut through harder stuff like metallic surfaces. But with a little bit of practice this thing's gonna be a killer! I'll call it, THE LIGHTBLADE! Nono, light, sword? Lightknife? Um...A-HA! Lightsaber! Yeahhhhhh the lightsaber, I'm definitely gonna copyright and trademark that."

Hado wondered though, as she witnessed Midoriya laugh at something that was said to him by another of his friends, she wondered why her stomach gained this odd feeling of enlightenment whenever she spotted the edges of his lips curl into that smile of his. Compared to other people's smiles such as All Might with his brave and bold flash of his teeth, or Ms. Joke with her fun and joyous show of her teeth, the first year didn't have any signature style when it came to his smile. It was just like any other regular smile that somebody might encounter in their lives but for whatever reason there was something unique and special to his. It just had a sort of mysterious charm to it, that's all.

As Hado continued to stare his way a glance in her direction led the two students to lock eye contact with each other and acknowledge their presence, Midoriya slightly turtling up when he realized he was being stared down from across the cafeteria. Slowly his right hand came up and nervously waved at the girl accompanied with his usual nervous smile, the third year gushing over his cuteness as she waved back with her usual energy. Why was he constantly nervous when it came to her? She would have thought that by now he was comfortable with her and being around her, or at least comfortable enough to easily form a stable smile with a strong wave. Though, it's not like she's complaining about his nervousness, she is admitting to the fact that he looked cute whenever he turtles up.

"So, how'd you come up with the idea anyways?"

"Well I figured since my Quirk is Light I'd be able to use it for a bunch of purposes other than creating light obviously." The first of the second years answered as they walked behind the table of Hado and company. "Figured there might be some purposes that I can use both offensively and defensively, and if I could do that, I could finally shift over to the hero course for my last year. Imagine a shield or, some kind of barrier."

"Yeah I bet you'll be able to come up with all kinds of crazy stuff what with light having a bunch of different properties."

"Definitely, but I think this lightsaber thing's probably gonna be the coolest thing I could come up with. I mean, it's a sword! Ha!" The second year began swinging his forearm around while making sound effects, imitating the arm blade to cut through different materials such as metal and paper. "ZWOO ZWOO CSHHHH SHHHKT!"

"Whoa careful with that man." His friend advised. "You're gonna hit something."

"Nahhh relax, you forget who's in control of this thing? Me! And with me being in control of this thing, ain't NOTHING gonna go wrong when I'm at the wheel. HA!"

ZWOO*

THUD*

"OHP!"
"A-AH-"

A collective groan washed over the cafeteria as Hado watched all of the coloring leave Midoriya's face with his chopsticks dropping onto his table and jaw hitting the floor, every student turning to the sound of the commotion which was in the direction of the third year. Confused at all the pairs of eyes turning to look at her Hado hummed in curiosity as she looked around but found no source of commotion or attention. "Hey, what's everybody looking at?"

"U-UH..." Togata choked with a pair of bulging eyes and wide open mouth.

"..." Amajiki conveyed with large eyes and an expression of disbelief on his face.

"U-Uh, Nejire?" Haya said beside her best friend, pointing to the back and bottom of her short hair with an uneasiness in her body posture. "You might wanna uh..."

Confused, Hado reached behind to her hair thinking that something had either landed on her hair or there was a strange effect that was happening to it. But when she reached behind her head to grab the waterfall of periwinkle she felt her heart drop when she felt absolutely nothing there, using both hands to reach behind her and only be met with the hard of her back. In the bottom right corner of her field of view the girl gasped and turned to the floor to see a large chunk of her hair had somehow been chopped off and was now laying beside her foot on the floor. "WHAT THE-"

"I-I uhhhh..." The girl turned behind her to see the two second years frozen stiff with every tint of color gone from their bodies, the boy on the left having his right forearm glow but slowly make the glow fade into nothing. "I-I am so, so sorry about that. Do-...Do you want me to, get the rest?"

Feeling her chest heave and huff into a panic Hado bolted out of her seat and ran like the wind out of the cafeteria, Haya following close behind her friend to scoop up the chopped off hair and carry it with her. The entire set of the cafeteria's eyes watched the third year rush out of everybody's view before Uraraka sighed out of pity and turned back around in her seat. "Geez, what was that guy thinking? He just cut off Hado's hair and left her a mess."

"And that is exactly why this institution prohibits the free usage of Quirks outside of designated instructing periods or unless given proper permission to exercise said usage." Iida replied. "It didn't seem that she was injured physically aside from her hair so that's a good thing. Let's hope she turns out okay."

'Yeah.' Midoriya thought worriedly. 'Let's hope so.'

-

PING*

"Oh relax it's not even that bad."

"It IS baaad I liked my old hair style better not this!"

"Heyyy come on Nejire, I think it looks good I mean it's a new take you know? Something new and interesting too."

"Least you don't have to deal with so much hair being dragged behind you. Oh but, then again that means you don't have the wall of hair to block your face either whichmeans people are gonna look at you now...that sucks."

"Yeah good argument Amajiki, brilliant."

Out from the elevator came Midoriya who slowly walked his way towards Hado's room where the door was open and he could hear the different voices of her friends trying to comfort her after the lunch incident, his steps slowing more and more as he approached closer to the room. Soon came the request of Hado that everybody leave the room followed by the hesitant words of her friends who ultimately decided not to intrude on her during this time. First came Togata and Amajiki exiting from the room and walking past the first year, then Haya moments later who was more surprised at the presence of the first year than the other two were. "Oh, you're here?"

"Hey Senpai." Midoriya greeted. "How uh, how is she?"

"Oh you know, sulking and moping about the new haircut she got. Personally we think it's a nice little change but, she doesn't seem to agree. Why did you show you up here anyways couldn't you have just texted her?"

"Yeah I could have but, I figured if I had the chance of seeing if she was okay in person then that might be better. Maybe? I-I don't know just, thought it might be better this way. Is now a bad time?"

"Look just, be careful with what you say in there." Haya said with a nod from Midoriya. "She's already bad enough as it is don't be making it worse for her."

"Understood, 100%."

The third year smirked with an eye roll as she continued walking past Midoriya who paused to take a deep breath and continued onward, inching his way to the outside frame of the door. He stopped just on the edge of the frame and listened for any noises of crying, sniffling or anything else that would signal it to be a bad time of visitation. Not that he figured there ever was a good time of visitation for this sort of thing.

KNOCK KNOCK*

"U-Uh, Hado-senpai? It's me Midoriya. Just, coming by to see if everything was okay after what happened at lunch today. O-Or is now a bad time cause I could, I could leave if-if that's what you prefer."

"It's fine. Come in."

The first year grimaced at how pitiful and sad her voice was compared to how it usually sounded, unsticking his feet from the carpet and entering her room at her request. Sitting on the edge of her bed with knees tucked into her body and head resting over said knees was Hado, the girl wearing a large blue sweater with the hood up and covering her hair. Or at least, what he thought to be her hair, it's obvious that a large portion of it was gone but how much exactly he had no clue. "Heyyyyy, Senpai. How are you?"

"Oh, you know just, enjoying my new hair cut that I totally asked for hmph." Hado joked, though a sad and pathetic excuse of a joke at that. "Can't you tell?"

"I'm really sorry about what happened earlier, don't really know what that guy was thinking doing something like that. You weren't hurt though right? Like he didn't nick you or cut you on the skin did he?"

"No. Just my hair."

"Oh, well that's good, at least you came out safe and uninjured from his Quirk. That's the important thing." Hado diverted her eyes from the floor up to the Midoriya and squinted. "What?"

"Why are you here?" Hado asked. "Shouldn't you be in bed laying down because of your head injury?"

"Well I should be but I'm feeling a lot better compared to yesterday I practically don't feel any of the pain at all if I'm being honest. It's only when my head gets swung around that the headaches start to come back. As far as why I'm here like I said I just wanted to come by and see if you were doing okay. Cause, y-you know, you did the same for me when I ended up in Recovery Girl's so, I-I thought it was only right that I do the same for you. Cause you know, that's what friends doooo heh! Heh...y-yeah."

Hado stifled a chuckle at how awkward he seemed whenever he tried something new, because being the cheerleader of the duo certainly wasn't up his alley in any world throughout the multiverse. But, it was cute though. Very cute in her opinion. "Yeah. That's what friends do."

"Sooooo..." He said while tapping his index fingers against each other nervously. "If, you don't mind me asking what uh, w-what did you do with your hair? The uh...th-the part that got cut off?"

"I mean, there's not really many uses that I could do with a giant lump of hair so, Recovery Girl helped me donate it to an organization that makes wigs for cancer patients. Best idea I could come up with in that scenario."

"Really?! Wow good thinking! I bet a lot of people probably would have just thrown their hair away if something like that happened to them. Good on you Senpai."

"Buuut, due to the fact that the angle at which my hair was cut made it uneven it meant that she had to cut the rest of it so that it would be even. Or as even as possible at least since nobody on campus is a barber. Which means now-" Hado reached for the edges of her hood and gripped them. "-I look like this."

The girl pulled the hood back to reveal her new style of a hair cut she never wanted, Midoriya's eyes bulging as he was witness to the new style. As the girl mentioned there was no professional barber on campus meaning that the cut was ugly and crude, Recovery Girl doing her best to make it as equal as possible with the pair of scissors at hand. And what was left is a much shorter, only length head of hair that was still curly and windy as her natural style of hair but with not as much bounciness. With her hair exposed the girl turtled up into her body as she felt the entire weight of Midoriya's gaze fall onto her head, the pressure of his opinion hanging like an axe over the top of her.

"I know I know, I look weird." She said with eyes away from him. "But it's the best that Recovery Girl was able to do given the cut so I'm thankful to her that I don't have to walk around with a weird lopsided cut. It's not really my thing but-"

"It's perfect."

Her eyes widened and turned back to Midoriya who was staring back at her with large pupils and slightly agape mouth, his breath having been taken away at the sight before him. "Wh-What?"

"It's perfect!" He repeated and breaking out into a wide smile this time, approaching the girl with his eyes locked on her short hair. "It's perfect! I-I mean if you think about it right your short hair is gonna be WAYYY better combat wise! Cause what if your hair gets snagged on an edge or something? Or-Or-Or, or a villain is trying to grab you and he manages to do so by grabbing your hair because he couldn't grab anything else? This short hair is really REALLY good because it prevents stuff like that from happening and it keeps you safe! A-A-And I think the short hair really makes your face stand out you know? Cause, cause before your hair kinda cupped it right? It just kinda cupped it and held it between the two bangs on each side of your face but NOW...now your face is shown off a lot more.

A-And that's good cause, you know you're pretty right heh y-you know that, already? You're really... really... pretty...Beautiful even."

Midoriya's strong start soon dwindled into silence at how amazing she looked with short hair, the silence being the catalyst for truth of the situation to come rolling back to him like an oncoming boulder. Realizing his close proximity with the girl, seeing her large eyes shimmer up to him and the impact of what he said all hitting him at once he took a giant step back and broke down into a smorgasbord of a blushing mess.

"I-IMEANTHAT'SJUSTMYOPINIONBUTOFCOURSEIT'SYOUROPINIONTHATMATTERSNOTREALLYMINEHAHAHAHANOTLIKEIHAVEANYCONTROLOVERYOURLIFEORYOURHAIRDEFINITELYDON'TLISTENTOMEYOUSHOULDLISTENTOYOURSELFIT'SYOURHAIRAFTERALLJUSTTHOUGHTIDGIVEMYINPUTABOUTITYOUKNOWHATISHOULDPROBABLYGOHEHYEAHIMGONNAGOLETYOUHAVESOMEALONETIMELIKEYOYMAYHAVEORIGINALLYWANTEDTOHEH...okay bye."

Midoriya walked backwards to the door for a few paces until he turned-

CLANG*

-and bumped his forehead on the right edge of the door's frame to stagger and stumble-

BONK*

-so that he can bump his head on the left edge of the door's frame and have his left foot be caught on the inside of the frame-

THUD*

-so that he can fall flat on his face. Cursing himself he quickly scrambled back onto his feet and looked back to give a nervous smile before he booked it down the hall and towards the elevator, leaving Hado by herself to stare out the hallway window panes.

Confused and left in a loop about what all that was the girl stared out into the hall for a few moments before she reached up to pull her hood over her head again but stopped, feeling as if something was pulling at her hands refusing to let her do so. Hesitation clouded her actions and Midoriya's words echoed off the walls of her brain until she slid off the edge of her bed and paced over to the mirror of her bedroom. Standing in front of the mirror to look at her reflection she sighed at the absence of her natural long hair and didn't feel as if this new style was any sort of subject to talk about. Yet knowing that...

You're really... really... pretty... Beautiful even.

She smiled, a blush tainting her cheeks and a warmth encircling the entirety of her heart. "Yeah...I guess do look pretty like this."